The
summaries are prepared by the
Registry and are not binding on the Court.

(...)

FREEDOM TO RECEIVE INFORMATION

Refusal
of the Central Election Committee
to provide an NGO with the documents allegedly needed to perform its
observer
functions at the parliamentary elections: communicated.

GERAGUYN KHORHURD
PATGAMAVORAKAN
AKUMB - Armenia
(ECHR No 11721/04)

Decision
11.04.2006 [Section
III]

The
applicant is an NGO which acted as an
election observer at the parliamentary elections in May 2003.

In the
days following the elections, the
applicant requested, by registered mail, that the Central Election
Committee (CEC)
provide it with the copies of all the decisions taken and records of
all the
meetings held by the CEC after 12 March 2003, as well as the other
documents
allegedly needed to perform its observer functions.

Its
requests remaining unanswered, the
applicant contested the CEC’s
inactivity before the
courts. The first-instance court rejected its complaint for lack of
proof,
without notifying the applicant about the hearing. The applicant
appealed
against this decision to the Civil Court of Appeal and to the Court of
Cassation, submitting the copies of the relevant post office receipts
with
postmarks. His appeals were dismissed on the ground that the above post
office
receipts could not serve as a proof because there was no postmark on
them.

Communicated
under Article 10.

Complaints
under Article 6 of the
Convention and article 3 of Protocol No.1: communicated.